Many products are stored or displayed on shelves. Typically, for example, a retail store will display its various wares on a shelf or tiers of shelves for viewing by a potential customer. Typically also, the retail store displays several identical items on such shelves so that if a customer grasps one of the items, at least one more of the items will be available for viewing and potential purchase by another customer.
In order to enhance the most effective use of such shelves, it is preferred to maintain identical wares directly one behind the other and different wares situated in immediate, adjacent proximity. Sometimes store personnel or store customers place or replace the various items in a somewhat disheveled manner that deviates from the most effective presentation of the items such that identical items are not lined up directly one behind the other and such that different items are not immediately adjacent thereto.
Dividers consisting of thin strips or fences, usually formed of metal or plastic, have been mounted on the shelves in order to restrict the placement and presentation of identical items in a column a directly one-behind-the-other relationship and so that different items may be placed immediately adjacent thereto, also in a column in a directly one-behind-the-other relationship. One of the difficulties with such prior art divider systems is that the relative width between dividers that exactly accommodates a particular item varies among the different items shared or displayed along the shelf. For example, a shelf that stores and displays both spray paint cans and bottles of motor oil requires different spacing between the dividers, since the width of a spray paint can is usually different from the width a bottle of motor oil. Similarly, different sized bags of potato chips will require different spacing between the dividers. To further complicate matters, a store often wishes to rearrange the display of products on shelves, and the dividers should be removable and reusable in order to accommodate any such rearrangement.
Typically, store shelves are formed of metal and possess a pre-selected array of perforations or apertures therethrough, which are designed to accommodate various types of dividers, clip-on display hangers, sign holders, and other shelving accessories. Also typically, such apertures have been fashioned with either a circular profile or a square or diamond-shaped profile possessing common dimensions.
The present invention was developed to satisfy the need for an inexpensively manufactured divider that may accommodate different shelving aperture arrays and designs and that is removable and reusable, although each of these desirable features is not necessarily required as part of the invention recited in the following claims.